Pregnancy can be a beautiful and exciting experience, but it can also bring up feelings of anxiety, fear, stress, isolation and uncertainty. Like any major life change it’s completely normal to experience a mix of emotions. Pregnancy is a huge transition in a women’s life impacting you spiritually, physically and emotionally.

Plenty of attention is given to the physical changes in a women’s body, but the emotional changes she may be experiencing may not always be obvious or discussed. During pregnancy a women may experience moods and emotions ranging from highs such as feeling overjoyed and excited about the arrival of a baby to lows of feeling frightened of the birth, impatient, worried and terrified as the time to meet her baby comes closer.

Some women may experience physical health problems throughout pregnancy. You may have a plan or an idea of how you would like the labour or birth of your baby to go but perhaps medical intervention is needed or recommended and this can leave some women feeling like they are defective in some way or like they have failed as a women by needing help to birth their baby. Or some women feel deeply disappointed as it didn’t go as they had planned.

Often women don’t’ feel like they can talk about what they are experiencing for fear of being judged by others. Maybe you have worries about how your body has changed or weight gain worries. Pregnancy can causes emotions to run high and this can cause conflict in close relationships.

If it’s your first pregnancy perhaps you have lots of concerns around the birth or worries about your baby being safe you may worry about any new sensations as the baby grows. Perhaps you may have experienced a previous miscarriage or tried for many years to become pregnant and have anxiety around the safety of the pregnancy. If you have had an unplanned pregnancy you may feel stressed, you may not know how to tell people, feel overwhelmed and very unsure.

Even if you have planned for a pregnancy on discovering you are pregnant it’s completely normal to feel a sense of shock or anxiety, something very significant has changed in your life

Pregnancy can also bring up other issues such as difficult family relationships, insecurities, high expectations of yourself. There can be lots of practical concerns when we are to become parents such as financial concerns, your career after you have had your baby, child care, do you return to work.

It’s so important to remember that we can be at our most vulnerable when we are pregnant. You are not inadequate or a disappointment or defective if pregnancy doesn’t leave you feeling happy and elated. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could be more open about how pregnancy really makes us feel?

How to support yourself during pregnancy

Be kind and gentle with yourself

Give yourself permission to have bad days

Take time each day to tell yourself how amazing you are and how amazing your body is

Talk to your baby growing inside of you even when you’re sad or unsure

Rest as often as you can

Avoid people who want to share negative birth stories

Try some guided meditations for bonding with your baby

Treat yourself

Pregnancy Yoga

Mindfulness

Write a gratitude diary

Create a pregnancy diary for you and your unborn child

Pregnancy massage

Allow yourself to cry

Don’t judge yourself you are growing a person inside you, how amazing is that

Share your worries and fears

Remember you are not perfect, nobody is

Self- compassion

How can therapy help?

Some women experience depression during pregnancy this can be caused by hormones changing the chemicals in your brain it would be advised to see a GP but Therapy can also help as a valuable aid to support you through your pregnancy.